Moderate Gains for Tel Aviv Stocks

The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange ended the trading week with modest to sharp gains on Thursday. The TA Composite Index closed at 994.28, up 1.71 percent, while the TA 100 rose 1.8 percent to 1,002.03, including a 1.85 percent advance for the Maof 25 most-widely-invested issues.

Most of the technology stocks jumped an average of 2.46 percent to 350.41, while the biomed index finished the day at 731.96, up .49 percent. The oil and natural gas stocks advanced 2.29 percent to 1,145.23, while the insurance index closed at 993.60, up 1.99 percent as the financial institutions rose 1.56 percent to 860.62, including a 1.27 percent rise to 926.43 by the banking issues. The stocks on the Ma'ala organization's Social Responsibility index advanced 1.55 percent to 768.09 and the real estate index closed at 277.83, up 1.29 percent, while the communications and media stocks stood at 468.96, up .31 percent.